Fan Error on T23

[likesspace]

Hi guys,
Well my daughter's T23 is giving me a fan error on startup and I have to admit that this is an error that I've never seen before.

We noticed, about a month ago, that some of the paint had started coming off of the bottom of the computer and I guess that this should have been the first clue that something was going wrong. Also, from time to time the computer would shut itself down without any warning.

Anyway, now the computer seems to be dead in the water.

I do have some thermal paste left over from my last tear down of a T23 but I have an idea that the paste alone is not going to bring this one back to life.
If someone has experienced this problem I would really appreciate some advice on what the fix will most likely involve and also if the computer needs a new fan I would appreciate a link to where I can purchase one.

Thanks in advance for your advice and help.

Dave

[rkawakami]

Fan error can be due to a fan which is actually not working, a problem with the sensor which is supposed to detect whether or not the fan is spinning and has also been attributed to a weak (or dead) CMOS or "backup" battery. Given that you say the system would shut down every now and then, suggests that it's a thermal problem. However, what exactly is "dead in the water"? Does the fan spin at all when the system is turned on? Do you get the IBM splash screen? Are there any beeps being issued?

The Hardware Maintenance Manual gives you details on how to take the system apart and replace the fan. You can download it from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... UYM3F.html

You basically need to remove the keyboard and the keyboard bezel in order to get at the three screws holding down the heatsink/fan assembly. Assuming that the fan is the only problem - in other words the motherboard hasn't been cooked - fans are typically sold on eBay for $10 to $20. The FRU (part number) is 26P9166 and is also known as 08K7366.

You can verify that the fan and thermal sensor is working properly by downloading a copy of PC Doctor for DOS from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F (three programs which makes diskettes)
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso (same program combined into an .ISO file that can be written to a CD)

[likesspace]

Ray,
Thanks so much for the response and the information.

As for the fan, it does not spin at all. I do get the splash screen and I do get a series of beeps when the splash screen exits.

This leads me to believe that the motherboard is still working as is the hard drive. It seems to be that the fan itself has gone bad and needs to be replaced.

A while back I did completely disassemble a T23 to re-solder a loose inductor (thanks to the information on this forum) so I do have at least a little bit of experience with this type of machine. I'm simply hoping that this will also be a somewhat easy fix.

I will take your advice and download a copy of PC Doctor to find out exactly where the problem lies.
Even though the T23 is an old machine it still suits my 9 year old daughter perfectly and in fact we still have 5 of them running in our household, (as well as 3, T-43 machines).

Since I got everyone to switch to Linux Mint I've found that these "old" machines can be brought back to life, in fact the T23 computers run a LOT faster on Linux than my brothers newer HP does with Vista.

The bottom line is that I'm not willing to commit the T23 to the trash bin simply because of a bad fan. We've gotten way too much use out of these computers and feel that they are still good for many years to come.

Thanks again for the information and I will be sure to post to this thread my findings and results. I really do appreciate your advice.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Dave

[Unknown_K]

You might want to pick up a second CPU as well if you were over heating it. You can get a 1Ghz P3 mobile (133 FSB) for $5 shipped on ebay lately. A small drop of thermal grease is all you need between the CPU and the heatsink, some people go nuts with it and degrade heat removal (it is only to fill in uneven spots in the heatsink).

[RealBlackStuff]

To replace the fan, you will need to remove keyboard and palmrest.
Be careful not to break the little catch on the bottom/left side of the palmrest, which hooks in on the right of the PCMCIA slot.

[likesspace]

Hey guys thanks again for all of the information.
I plan on opening it up this weekend to see what damage has been done.

Have a great week.

Dave

[papollonia]

Thanks for posting this thread..

I have been having fan problems for a while now..
Get the fan error, turn off, smack the bottom and turn back on and the fan works!!

I got a another fan, just have been too lazy to replace it..

[moronoxyd]

To replace the fan, you will need to remove keyboard and palmrest.

Actually, you can replace the fan/cpu without removing the palmrest. You just need to "wiggle" the fan a little once you removed the 3 screws.


4 weeks ago a friend got a T23 somewhere and asked me whether I could replace the cpu.
It took all of 10 minutes to remove the keyboard and fan, clean the fan of old grease and dust, get out the old cpu, put in the new one, put grease on and reassemble the machine.

[arabianights]

Thanks for posting this thread..

I have been having fan problems for a while now..
Get the fan error, turn off, smack the bottom and turn back on and the fan works!!

I got a another fan, just have been too lazy to replace it..

da*n, i can't believe this trick actually works.

i started having fan error on my t23 in the past couple weeks,
i already replaced the fan on my t23 once, seems fan went bad again.

[hiero]

Actually, you can get the BIOS 'Fan Error' for non specific faults at boot such as CD not able to read a data sector or a BS on your HDD

[rkawakami]

Fan error message is usually due to a slow or non-spinning fan. To a lesser extent, it could also be a bad fuse or a transistor in the fan control circuit or (as I've heard) a weak CMOS battery. The couple of T23 fan errors I've encountered were of the first type; noisy or dead fan. I've never heard of BIOS throwing a fan error due to reading bad sectors from either the optical or hard disk drives. The fan error typically occurs before the laptop has had a chance to boot an OS.

[hiero]

/\ yes, often get it when going to the T23 recovery CDs to reinstall...

[wisdomkeeper]

Remove the cooler, disassemble the cooler - put some fine machine oil or silicone oil where the axis of the fan lies down and try again.